1. The Awakening Monk ! (Part 3)

2. The young, unknown monk of India was transformed overnight into an outstanding figure of the religious world. From obscurity he leapt to fame. His life-size portraits were posted in the streets of Chicago, with words 'The Monk Vivekananda' written beneath them and many passers-by would stop to do reverence with bowed heads. Chicago, 1893

3. Mr. Merwin-Marie Snell stated, enthusiastically: “By far the most important and typical representative of Hinduism was Swami Vivekananda, who, in fact, was beyond question the most popular and influential man in the Parliament.... He was received with greater enthusiasm than any other speaker, Christian or pagan. The people thronged about him wherever he went and hung with eagerness on his every word. The most rigid of orthodox Christians say of him, ‘He is indeed a prince among men!’ ”

4. Swami Vivekananda was invited to by a lecture bureau to tour the United States, and he accepted the offer. He thought that through a lecture bureau he could effectively broadcast his ideas all over the American continent and thus remove from people's minds erroneous notions regarding Hindu religion and society. Soon he was engaged in a whirlwind tour covering the larger cities of the East and the Middle West. He visited, among other places, Iowa City, Des Moines, Memphis, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Detroit, Buffalo, Hartford, Boston, Cambridge, New York, Baltimore, and Washington. People called him the 'cyclonic Hindu'.

5. The Iowa State Register wrote: “But woe to the man, who undertook to combat the monk on his own ground, and that was where they all tried it who tried it at all. His replies came like flashes of lightning and the venturesome questioner was sure to be impaled on the Indian’s shining intellectual lance... Vivekananda and his cause found a place in the hearts of all true Christians. Many Christian ministers became his warm friends and invited him to speak in their churches.”

6. Newspapers published his speeches and they were read with warm interest all over the country. The New York Herald said: “He is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions. After hearing him we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation.”

7. The Boston Evening Post said: “He is a great favourite at the Parliament from the grandeur of his sentiments and his appearance as well. If he merely crosses the platform he is applauded; and this marked approval of thousands he accepts in a childlike spirit of ratification without a trace of conceit.... At the Parliament of Religions they used to keep Vivekananda until the end of the programme to make people stay till the end of the session....The four thousand fanning people in the Hall of Columbus would sit smiling and expectant, waiting for an hour or two to listen to Vivekananda for fifteen minutes. The chairman knew the old rule of keeping the best until the last.”

8. The World Parliament of Religions, Sep 11 th 1893 was held at the World’s Congress Auxilliary Building, which is now the Art Institute of Chicago. Swami Vivekananda delivered his famous address at this place. Jitish Kallat, an Indian artist, had created a provocative site-specific piece, at the Art Institute of Chicago, which was opened on September 11 th 2010 and remained opened till September 11 th 2011, as a tribute to this legend….. The speech was literally delivered at the Fullterton Hall, which is just a few yards from this art work. Vivekananda’s speech embraced tolerance for all religions and the understanding that all religious paths led in the same spiritual direction. The purpose of this first meeting of the World’s Parliament of Religions was to dialogue and to embrace the notion of all religions being constructive manifestations of being human with universal intent.

9. Kallat has transformed Vivekananda’s speech into LED displays on the 118 risers of the grand staircase of the Art Institute.

10. One literally reads his words of tolerance as one ascends the steps. (The colors used for the LED lights are the ones that the United States Department of Homeland Security uses for terror alerts.) will be continued…